Processing of sausagelike products

ABSTRACT

Apparatus and method for improving the transportation of a chain of cased sausage products interconnected by untied, twisted links of casing material. To reduce the tendency to untwist during subsequent handling (e.g. cooking) the sausages are squeezed transversely to strain the casing material beyond its elastic limit in the vicinity of the links. In addition the chain is subjected to tension to ensure registration between the products and an indexing conveyor, regardless of any irregularities in the length of the links.

United States Patent I I I I I Inventor William R. .I. Wallace Montreal, Quebec, Canada Appl. No. 850,123 Filed Aug. 14, I969 Patented Nov. 16, 197i Assignee l'lylrade Foods, Inc.

Montreal. Quebec. Canada Priority Apr. 1, i966 Canada 957,!69

Original application May 4, I966, Ser. No. 547,572, now Patent No. 3,505,081. Divided and this application Aug. I4, 1969, Ser. No. 850,123

PROCESSING OF SAUSAGELIKE PRODUCTS 8 Claims, 6 Drawing Figs.

U.S. Cl 226/109, l7/l F Int. Cl B65h 17/00 [50] Field of Search 99/]09; l7/l F, 33, 34; 100/152; 226/l08, 109, I95

[56] lleierences Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS l,654,87i [H928 Gage i l7/34 UX l.70l,7i3 2l|929 Allen............... l7/34 Primary Examiner- Richard A. Schacher Attorney-Stevens, Davis, Miller 8:. Mosher ABSTRACT: Apparatus and method for improving the transportation of a chain of cased sausage products interconnected by untied, twisted links of casing material. To reduce the tendency to untwist during subsequent handling (e.g. cooking) the sausages are squeezed transversely to strain the casing material beyond its elastic limit in the vicinity of the links. In addition the chain is subjected to tension to ensure registration between the products and an indexing conveyor, regardless of any irregularities in the length of the links.

PATENTEDunv 16 Ian SHEET 1 0F 3 PATENTEDNUV 16 Ian 3. 620,431

sum 3 or 3 PROCESSING OF SAUSAGELIKE PRODUCTS This application is a division of application Ser. No. 547,572 filed May 4, 1966, now U.S. Pat. No. 3,505,08l.

This invention relates to certain apparatus and methods employed in the processing and particularly the transportation for procening purposes of wieners, frankfurters or other sausagelike edible products. For simplicity, such products will from henceforth be referred to as sausage or sausage products, which terms are intended to include all the various varieties that are available.

The standard method of manufacturing such products (especially in the more popular sizes, e.g. 6 inches in length) has been first to stuff a continuous tube of casing material with meat emulsion, and then to constrict the casing at intervals to divide this long tube into the required individual lengths so that each length ultimately forms an individual sausage. With the sausages thus interconnected by constricted links of the continuous casing, the whole sausage chain is passed through equipment for cooking the meat and subjecting the product to such other conditions, e.g. smoking and final chilling, as may be required. Until recently, the division of the easing into individual sausage lengths has been carried out either manually or by a machine which ties the casing with thread to form each constriction.

In recent years the preferred manner of forming the individual sausage lengths by periodically constricting the elongated casing has undergone improvement. The more modern sausage-making machines now available no longer form the constrictions with a thread; instead they form the constrictions by simply twisting the casing. In one widely used machine, for example, the portion of the casing forming each sausage is twisted about the longitudinal axis of the chain of sausages approximately iltturns in relation to the immediately adjacent sausage, and so on down the entire casing length.

The modern machines that make sausages in this way embody may improvements, particularly in relation to their speed of operation, but they present the problem that the chain of sausages, after it emerges from the sausage-making machine, has a tendency to untwist. For example, if such a chain of sausages were allowed to hang vertically supported only at its upper end, the stressed constrictions in the casing would immediately unwind and the identify of the individual sausages would be lost. The chain of individual sausages would quickly become a single long casing somewhat loosely filled with meat emulsion.

After the sausage chain has been subjected to a cooking process, this tendency to unwind will have substantially or completely disappeared, but it is nevertheless necessary to handle the chains of sausages as they emerge from the sausage-making machine and to convey then in an orderly fashion into the cooking ovens. It is during this time that it is necessary to take steps to inhibit the tendency of the chain to twist.

The present invention is directed towards the provision of apparatus and methods for the transporting of such sausage chains in as practicable and economical manner, while preventing their tendency to twist impeding the proper operation of the equipment.

One example of apparatus constructed in accordance with the present invention is illustrated diagrammatically in the accompanying drawings, it being understood that these drawings are provided by way of example only, and not by way of limitation of the broad scope of the invention, which latter is defined in the appended claims.

In the drawings:-

FIG. 1 is a general plan view of the entire area of the sausage handling apparatus with which this invention is concerned;

FIG. 2 is a perspective side view of a first portion of this apparatus of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a perspective side of a second portion of the apparatus of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a detailed view of a fragment of the apparatus seen in FIG. 2;

FIG. 8 is a side view of another fragment of the apparatus seen in FIG. 2; and

FIG. 6 is a section of the line VI-VI in FIG. 5.

The overall apparatus seen in FIG. I shows a sausage-making machine 10 of the modern type which produces chains of cased sausage products interconnected by untied twisted constrictions, referred to below as "links of stressed casing material. Such machines are well known and are shown in Townsend U.S, Pat. No. 3,l [5,668 issued Dec. 3 l I963. The machine 10 d'ucharges each chain of sausages from a noule 12 which proficts forwardly and sidewardly from the end of the machine 10 while rotating about the longitudinal axis of the machine. This has the result that each chain of sausages is deposited as a coil 11 on a portion 13 of a handling table 14. The table 14 includes transversely extending portion 15 with an upstanding edge 16 and a series of partitions I? which define l0 boys 18 arranged five on each side of centerline of the apparatus, as best appreciated from FIG. I. Extending along in front of the bays II is a flat working surface 19.

For simplicity of illustration, the apparatus has been shown empty in FIG. 1, except for the coiled sausage chain II, and in FIG. 2 only the nearest bay I8 is shown containing a second coiled sausage chain 20. In practice each of the IObays 18 will normally be in simultaneous use, but, since each the 10 units of the apparatus operates in essentially the same manner, full detail of illustration has been confined in FIGS. 2 and 3 to the nearest unit.

As each chain of sausages is deposited in coiled form on the table portion 13, an operator grasps this coil (holding the free end of the sausage at each end of the coil to prevent unwinding) and slides the coil over to one of the bays 18. let it be assumed towards the end bay [8 shown in FIG. 2. In this bay the sausage 22 of this coil 20 is already in the process of being transported through the apparatus and the trailing end 21 of the last sausage 22 of this coil has been pinched between a pair of upstanding spring clips 23 mounted on an adjacent partition 17 to prevent any unwinding. The operator now ties the leading portion of the casing material of the upper end of the new coil II to this trailing end 2! and moves the new coil 11 into position in the bay I8 just behind or adjacent the coil 20, at the same time taking the trailing casing portion at the lower end of the coil II and placing it between the spring clips 23. In this way the sausage chains remain coiled, with their trailing ends either grasped by the operator of pinched between the spring clips 23 and with their leading ends either grasped by the operator or connected to the chain of sausages extending into the apparatus. They thus have no opportunity to unwind.

It will be appreciated that similar operations are carried out in each of the bays ll. Very soon after the coil II has been removed from beneath the noule 12 of the sausage-making machine l0, this machine will begun to form a new coil of sausages, which, as soon as it is complete, will be conveyed by one of the operators to one of the other bays I8, so that all the bays can be in simultaneous use. Although these coils of sausages as produced by the machine 10 are limited in length (containing typically I60 to 179 individual sausages), the chain which is fed into each each unit of the transporting portion of the apparatus is continuous and can be made as long as desired by simply joining on more of the coiled chains from the machine 10.

Each such continuous sausage chain, as exemplified by the sausage chain 30 in FIG. 2, passes over a driven roller 31 to an indexing conveyor 32. The indexing conveyor 32 comprises a spaced series of generally U-shaped upstanding lugs 33. the lugs being spaced along the chain by a distance equal to the spacing between the casing material links 34 that join adjacent sausages. The sausage chain 30 lies along and is conveyed by the upper span of the indexing conveyor 32, with each link 34 in reflster with a lug 33 and with a single individual sausage 35 lying between a pair of adjacent lugs 33. Each sausage is centrally supponed by a curved support surface 36 formed on the conveyor 32.

Downstream of each conveyor 32 there is located a stressing conveyor 39 in the form of a pair of caterpillar con- 5) come together to define a travelling conveyor for receiving the chain 30 of sausages 35. The caterpillar conveyors 40 and 41 comprise conventional belts on which are mounted generally semicylindrical rubber shoes 44 shaped to embrace each sausage 35 in the manner also seen in FIG. 6.

There are two important considerations regarding the stressing conveyor 39 and its function in relation to the indexing conveyor 32. Firstly, the spacing between the conveyor spans 42 and 43 is slightly less that the normal diameter of the sausages 35 as they enter this assembly. This has the effect of exerting a measure of gentle squeezing on the sausages, as well as obtaining a firm grip on them for the purposes of conveying the chain 30 through the apparatus. This squeezing action serves to convert some of the stress in the end portions of the casing into strain. The casing becomes stressed beyond its elastic limit, the meat emulsion is compacted into the ends of each sausage and the tendency of the links 34 to untwist is reduced. This effect has been illustrated in FIG. 5, in slightly exaggerated form to aid clear understanding. Compare the comparatively loose end packing between adjacent sausages shown in the area 47 before the squeezing action has taken effect with more firmly compacted ends of the sausages in the area 48 which has been subjected to the squeezing action. It has been found in practice that this transverse squeezing actions aids materially in reducing the tendency of the sausage chain to unwind, an advantage which is most valuable in the next stage of the process, which is described below.

The second important feature of the relationship between the stressing conveyor 39 and the indexing conveyor 32 is that the conveyor 39 is driven at a slightly faster linear speed. That is to say, the linear speed at which the conveyor 39 tries to pull the sausage chain is slightly greater that the driven speed of the conveyor 32. This has the effect of subjecting the chain of sausages upstream of the conveyor 38 to tension and of ensurin g that the natural tendency of the chain of lag behind the indexing conveyor 32 is overriden. The conveyor 32 must c0nvey the sausage chain 30 through the initial part of the apparatus including lifting the sausages up from the coil 20. If reliance were placed solely on the fact that the indexing conveyor 32 is power driven, there would tend to be a constant falling back of the sausage chain, with the effect that the proper registration between links 34 and lugs 33 could not be maintained. It should be appreciated that the sausages are quite rubbery and elastic. They can be relatively easily bent, stretched and otherwise distorted. Indeed, this ability to stretch, which is evident in the area 47 of FIG. 5, is an important ingredient in the proper operation of the present method, having regard to the fact that the conveyor 39 is driven at a slightly greater linear speed that the indexing conveyor 32. Without this elasticity ands certain inevitable amount of slippage between the sausage chain and the conveyor 39 the sausage chain would either be broken of the sausages would be pulled forwardly from their proper register between lugs 33. As it is, in practice, this constant pulling forward of the sausage chain 30 by the slightly faster travelling caterpillar conveyor 39 has the effect of ensuring proper register of the individual sausages on the chain 32. However, while the tension in the sausage chain is sufficient to pull it into register, if it is not already there, this tension is insufficient to pull the chain out of register, when it is already in register. Even under conditions of most careful control, the sausages occasionally enter the upstream end of the indexing conveyor 32 out of proper register between the lugs 33. This may be due to some irregularity in the sausage chain, or to the added length of interconnection between adjacent sausages that often occurs at the join between adjacent sausage coils, i.e. when a new coil (or length) 20 of sausages is manually joined to a previous coil 20. As stated above, in each bay 18 the operator ties the leading portion of the casing material of a new coil 11 (FIG. I) to the trailing end 21 of the previous coil 21 (FIG. 2). Whenever this happens (i.e. an irregularity occurs in the sausage chain, as by an unusually long link) the pulling caterpillar conveyor 38 ensures that, at least by the time the sausages reach the downstream end of the indexing conveyor 32, they will be properly in register therewith.

The importance of this correct register will become apparent from the consideration that is now to be given to the further handling of the sausage chains. Downstream of the conveyor 39, the sausages enter a tube 45 by which they are conveyed to a T-bar conveyor 46 as shown in FIG. 3. This T- bar conveyor 46 comprises a conveyor rail 50 on which a series of hangers 51 travels, being pulled along a chain 52. The direction of travel is from left to right in FIG. 3 and each hanger 51 carries a so-called T-bar 53, horizontal arms of which are corrugated to provide 10 notches 54 with each of which a link 34 between a pair of sausages is engaged, For simplicity of illustration in FIG. 3, only the outermost sausage chain 30 has been shown, but it will be appreciated that in full operation of the machine it) such sausage chains located side by side across the full width of the apparatus will be simultaneously loaded onto the T-bar conveyor 46.

A fixed transverse bar 55 momentarily holds back T-bar 53 until progress of the conveyor 46 draws the T-bar 53 over the top of the bar 55. The T-bar then falls into a vertical position substantially directly beneath downwardly projecting nozzles 56 of the tubes 45. Thus as each T-bar 53 passes over the bar 55 and falls into place immediately beneath a row of nozzles 56 it causes each of its notches 54 to engage a link between a pair of sausages of the respective hanging sausage chain. The speed and timing of travel of the T-bars is related to the speed of travel of the sausage chains as determined by the indexing conveyors 32, so that a predetermined number of sausages hangs in each loop 57 between adjacent T-bars 53. All the conveyors may run continuously in which case the timing is achieved as a result of careful control over their relative speeds. Alternatively, the conveyors 32 and 39 can operate intermittently, being triggered by a microswitch 64 sensitive to dropping down of each fresh T-bar 53 beyond the bar 55. The conveyors 32 and 39 would then rub for a sufficient time to convey a further desired number of sausages through the tubes 45 and would then stop until the next T-bar 53 moved down to engage the hanging chain of sausages, whereupon the cycle would repeat. Whichever form of timing is used it is preferably arranged that an odd number of sausages appears in each loop (for example nine or I l sausages), to ensure the existence of a transversely extending sausage 58 at the bottom of each loop. This transverse sausage tends to keep the two vertical portions 59 of each loop 57 spaced apart, and insofar as the loops 5'! may still contain some tendency to twist, the sausage 58 tends to prevent the vertical portions 59 of the loops 57 twisting tightly around one another. This is valuable, because when the sausage chains mounted on the T-bar conveyor pass into the cooling apparatus shown generally at 60 in FIG. 1, it is important for considerations of uniform cooking that air be able to circulate freely between the individual sausages of each loop and chain. It also helps to eliminate "tough marks," namely blemishes arising out of sausages remaining in contact during further processing.

Each indexing conveyor 32 and its associated stressing conveyor 39 is power driven from a suitable source of power, e.g. an electric motor. Apart from a symbolic showing to a drive mechanism 6] for the conveyor 46, which mechanism includes shafts 62 and 63 extending to conveyors 32 and 39, the details of the drives to the parts have been omitted from the drawings in the interests of simplicity and since such parts are conventional and simply comprise motors, shafts, chains, sprockets and the like.

lclaim:

1. Apparatus for transporting a chain of cased sausage products interconnencted by untied twisted links of stressed casing material, comprising a. an elongated indexing conveyor having lugs projecting therefrom and spaced apart by a distance equal to the spacing between adjacent links of said chain,

b. a second conveyor,

means for driving said conveyors and means mounting a span of said second conveyor downstream of said indexing conveyor in the drive direction for transporting a chain of said sausage products in its longitudinal direction along said indexing conveyor and then along said second conveyor span,

said driving means including means for driving said second conveyor at a slightly faster linear speed than said indexing conveyor in order to tension said chain upstream of the second conveyor an thus pull the chain forwardly on the indexing conveyor to ensure that the links of the sausage chain are in register with the lugs on the indexing conveyor.

Apparatus for transporting a chain of sausage products interconnected by untied twisted links of stressed casing material, comprising an elongated indexing conveyor having lugs projecting therefrom and spaced apart from a distance equal to the spacing between adjacent links of said chain,

. A stressing conveyor, including means for transporting squeezing said sausage products whereby to distort the casing material in the vicinity of the ends of the individual sausage products and the links therebetween to reduce the tendency of said links to twist,

. means for driving said conveyors and means mounting a span of said stressing conveyor downstream of said indexing conveyor in the drive direction for transporting a chain of said sausage products in its longitudinal direction along said indexing conveyor and then along said stressing conveyor span,

said driving means including means for driving said stressing conveyor at a slightly faster linear speed than said indexing conveyor in order to tension said chain upstream of the stressing conveyor and thus pull the chain forwardly on the indexing conveyor to ensure that the links of the sausage chain are in register with the lugs on the indexing conveyor.

Apparatus according to claim 2, wherein said stressing conveyor comprises a pair of conveyor belts each having a series of generally semicyclindrical resilient shoes projecting therefrom,

said span of the stressing conveyor comprising a pair of parallel, adjacent spans of said conveyor belts, the spacing between said belt spans being such that said shoes engage the sausage products to convey the chain longitudinally while simultaneously gently squeezing said sausage products transversely.

. Apparatus according to claim 1, including a further conveyor comprising a series of horizontally extending bars each including a notch for receiving a link of a said chain of sausage products, with said chain hanging in loops between adjacent bars,

f. and means mounting said further conveyor downstream of said second conveyor for receiving said chain at a loading station,

g. said conveyor driving means including means for driving said further conveyor to cause said bars to travel seriatim in a horizontal path through said loading station a predetennined distance apart and at a speed related to the speed of the indexing conveyor to form substantially all said loops with the same predetermined number of sausage products.

5. Apparatus according to claim 4, wherein said predetermined number is an odd number.

6. Equipment comprising a plurality of units of apparatus each according to claim 4,

h. said units being disposed in generally parallel aligned with each other, wherein the bars of said further conveyor include a plurality of said notches corresponding in number to the number of said units,

j. said notches being spaced along each bar transversely of the direction of travel of said further conveyor whereby at said loading station to receive a correaponding number of chains of sausage products side by si e onto said further conveyor, each chain extending continuously in a series of loops extending from each bar to the next.

7. Equipment comprising a plurality of units of apparatus each according to claim I c. said units being disposed in generally parallel aligned arrangement with each other,

f. And including a loading table located upstream of all the indexing conveyors of said units for feeding chains of sausage products onto said units,

. said loading table including upstanding partitions defining 8. Equipment according to claim 7. including a spring clip associated with each bay for holding the lower end of the transferred coiled chain to prevent untwisting of the chain until such lower end is subsequently connected to the upper end of a fresh coiled chain.

i i U i i 

1. Apparatus for transporting a chain of cased sausage products interconnected by untied twisted links of stressed casing material, comprising a. an elongated indexing conveyor having lugs projecting therefrom and spaced apart by a distance equal to the spacing between adjacent links of said chain, b. a second conveyor, c. means for driving said conveyors and means mounting a span of said second conveyor downstream of said indexing conveyor in the drive direction for transporting a chain of said sausage products in its longitudinal direction along said indexing conveyor and then along said second conveyor span, d. said driving means including means for driving said second conveyor at a slightly faster linear speed than said indexing conveyor in order to tension said chain upstream of the second conveyor an thus pull the chain forwardly on the indexing conveyor to ensure that the links of the sausage chain are in register with the lugs on the indexing conveyor.
 2. Apparatus for transporting a chain of cased sausage products interconnected by untied twisted links of stressed casing material, comprising a. an elongated indexing conveyor having lugs projecting therefrom and spaced apart from a distance equal to the spacing between adjacent links of said chain, b. a stressing conveyor, including means for transversely squeezing said sausage products whereby to distort the casing material in the vicinity of the ends of the individual sausage products and the links therebetween to reduce the tendency of said links to untwist, c. means for driving said conveyors and means mounting a span of said stressing conveyor downstream of said indexing conveyor in the drive direction for transporting a chain of said sausage products in its longitudinal direction along said indexing conveyor and then along said stressing conveyor span, d. said driving means including means for driving said stressing conveyor at a slightly faster linear speed than said indexing conveyor in order to tension said chain upstream of the stressing conveyor and thus pull the chain forwardly on tHe indexing conveyor to ensure that the links of the sausage chain are in register with the lugs on the indexing conveyor.
 3. Apparatus according to claim 2, wherein e. said stressing conveyor comprises a pair of conveyor belts each having a series of generally semicylindrical resilient shoes projecting therefrom, f. said span of the stressing conveyor comprising a pair of parallel, adjacent spans of said conveyor belts, the spacing between said belt spans being such that said shoes engage the sausage products to convey the chain longitudinally while simultaneously gently squeezing said sausage products transversely.
 4. Apparatus according to claim 1, including e. a further conveyor comprising a series of horizontally extending bars each including a notch for receiving a link of a said chain of sausage products, with said chain hanging in loops between adjacent bars, f. and means mounting said further conveyor downstream of said second conveyor for receiving said chain at a loading station, g. said conveyor driving means including means for driving said further conveyor to cause said bars to travel seriatim in a horizontal path through said loading station a predetermined distance apart and at a speed related to the speed of the indexing conveyor to form substantially all said loops with the same predetermined number of sausage products.
 5. Apparatus according to claim 4, wherein said predetermined number is an odd number.
 6. Equipment comprising a plurality of units of apparatus each according to claim 4, h. said units being disposed in generally parallel aligned arrangement with each other, wherein the bars of said further conveyor include a plurality of said notches corresponding in number to the number of said units, j. said notches being spaced along each bar transversely of the direction of travel of said further conveyor whereby at said loading station to receive a corresponding number of chains of sausage products side by side onto said further conveyor, each chain extending continuously in a series of loops extending from each bar to the next.
 7. Equipment comprising a plurality of units of apparatus each according to claim 1, e. said units being disposed in generally parallel aligned arrangement with each other, f. and including a loading table located upstream of all the indexing conveyors of said units for feeding chains of sausage products into said units, g. said loading table including upstanding partitions defining a row of bays corresponding in number to the number of said units, and further including a surface located to receive individual coiled chains of sausage products from a sausage-making machine for sliding transfer by an operator while still in coiled form to a selected bay for connection of the upper end of such transferred coiled chain to the lower end of another coiled chain already located in such bay, the upper end of which other coiled chain extends to the indexing conveyor of the corresponding unit, whereby to produce a continuous chain extending into said unit.
 8. Equipment according to claim 7, including a spring clip associated with each bay for holding the lower end of the transferred coiled chain to prevent untwisting of the chain until such lower end is subsequently connected to the upper end of a fresh coiled chain. 